The corrupt corporate media is in hysterics that Gov. Ron DeSantis said high school students shouldn’t participate in the Covid-obsessed regime’s mask “theater.”
“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis told a row of students standing behind him at a press conference on Wednesday. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
Correction: I believe these students are in high school.
Hillsborough School District says some of their kids from Middleton HS in Tampa were involved in the presser, so I believe these are those students.
— Evan Donovan (@EvanDonovan) March 2, 2022
Some students, encouraged by DeSantis’s candor about masking, quickly took off and pocketed their face coverings for the rest of the event. Other students opted to keep their masks on after DeSantis clearly told the teens that they were free to continue wearing them if they so desired.
The Republican simply encouraged students to follow the science, something his administration has prioritized for the last two years despite criticism from the dishonest press and Democrats, but that didn’t stop the same corrupt media from smearing him just one day after hundreds of politicians went mask-free at the State of the Union.
“DeSantis scolds students for wearing face masks,” headlines blared on Wednesday.
“Ron DeSantis just yelled at high school students for wearing masks,” CNN wrote, just six months after anchor Don Lemon mocked parents for opposing mask mandates in schools.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis looked visibly annoyed and admonished a group of students who wore face masks at one of his appearances. https://t.co/Avkd8kpgfO pic.twitter.com/1qFqJV2s33
— ABC News (@ABC) March 2, 2022
Other reporters looking for controversy and trying to paint the governor in a bad light even made public requests to talk to parents angered by DeSantis’s unproblematic comments.
Long shot, but if you were one of those students standing behind DeSantis (or a parent of one of those students) who wants to talk, please DM me. Thanks! https://t.co/PauKrJIa4i
— Amy B Wang (@amybwang) March 2, 2022
“I’m responsible for him. And I told him to wear that mask, and Gov. DeSantis, and he’s looking at this adult authority is telling them, ‘Oh you don’t have to wear the mask,’” the unmasked mother of one of the teens ranted to a reporter while her masked son stood behind her. “It’s just shocking that the governor told these kids, ‘Take off your mask.’ He pretty much said, ‘Take off your mask. It’s stupid,’ and ‘Take off your mask, your parents don’t matter.’ … He’s telling my minor child will take off his mask, he’s putting us at risk.”
“What was your reaction when you heard the governor tell you and your classmates remove your mask?” a reporter asked the masked high-schooler.
“Um, a bit of surprise and shock. More of, OK, this authority or the authority figure is asking me to do something that I know is probably going to end up being controversial,” the student said.
The student admitted to the reporter that he took off his mask after the governor’s promptings made him think, “All right, why not?”
"I would tell (the governor) to stop bullying kids."
Kevin Brown says Gov. DeSantis had no right to tell his son and the other high school students to take off their masks.
His son decided to keep his mask on during the press conference at USF. https://t.co/JNYeA9dYci @WFLA pic.twitter.com/nnBTJNmfQF
— Justin Schecker (@WFLAJustin) March 3, 2022
When a local outlet finally found a parent to back up the anti-DeSantis narrative, the interview was amplified by multiple corporate media outlets that have routinely ignored parents frustrated with government officials over Covid theater.
For the last two years, parents concerned about indoctrination in schools were gaslit by the corrupt press who lied that critical race theory is not taught in K-12 classrooms. Leftist media outlets repeatedly mocked moms and dads who spoke out against the wokeification of schools and amplified the narrative that parents don’t belong in the classroom.
Americans who wanted a say in their kids’ education were silenced for their beliefs by local school boards and eventually smeared by the Biden administration and teachers unions as “domestic terrorists.” This federal, coordinated attempt to silence parents was cheered on by the same dishonest outlets who are now trying to demonize DeSantis for simply offering students a choice on masks.
For the untrustworthy media, it doesn’t matter that DeSantis explicitly told the teens they had the choice to remove their masks. The governor insulted the left’s public-health cult, and they want to punish him for that.
DeSantis’s stance on the role parents should play in their children’s lives never changed, but the corrupt corporate media and Democrats’ view suddenly did. When parents were concerned that their kids were being muzzled with face coverings despite data supporting mask-free learning, the Republican banned schools in the Sunshine State from requiring masks and the media crucified him. But when the hierarchy built by the left’s Covid-19 agenda was threatened, reporters scrambled to find concerned parents they could use to malign him for “berating” and “bullying” teens.
Source: The Federalist
